


Pesadelo

by SteampunkWilson



Category: Legend of the Three Caballeros (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Crying, Enjoy the story, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I have exams tomorrow, Jose has a tragic past, Nightmares, Rated for mentions of violence and mild description, the portuguese is translated by google translate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 12:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16534358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteampunkWilson/pseuds/SteampunkWilson
Summary: Donald and Panchito overhear Jose talking in his sleep and try to translate his Portuguese ramblings. Little do they know it leads to their discovery of his surprisingly tragic backstory.OneshotSummary sucks, sorry





	Pesadelo

**Author's Note:**

> Nice little Jose angst fic for you all to enjoy. I can't figure out how to put an accent on his name, so yeah, that's why it's like that

Donald woke up with a yawn, ready to start the day. This ready to go attitude was immediately stifled when he looked at the window and found that it was still dark outside. The middle of the night. He still had hours to sleep! YES!  
"Parar!" Donald jumped a little. The word had come out of nowhere, and he sat up, looking towards his foreign companions, as one of them was most likely the culprit. To his surprise, Panchito was also sitting up, propped up on his elbow. His eyes met Donald's and the rooster pressed a finger to his lips.  
"Por favour!" Donald's attention was brought to Jose, who was tossing and turning in his sleep, mumbling in Portuguese.  
"What's he saying?" Donald whispered, shuffling a little closer to Panchito.  
"I don't know." Panchito whispered back. "He was like this last night too-" He was cut off as Jose launched into a stream of Portuguese, tripping over his own words, obviously panicked.  
"Should we wake him up?" Donald asked, but before Panchito could reply, Jose went silent again, snoring softly.  
"I think it's OK now." Panchito murmured. "But this is odd, what do you think we should do?" Donald shrugged.  
"We'll think of something in the morning." Panchito nodded and rolled over, swiftly falling asleep again. Donald rolled onto his back, but he found he couldn't sleep. Something about Jose's sleep talking seemed off, he wasn't normally one to get panicked, even in battle. It was probably just a nightmare, but two nights in a row? Donald glanced at the sleeping forms of his comrades. They knew each other pretty well, to say they'd been living in the cabana together for about a month and a half now. But Donald only really knew the people they were now. Not a lot about the birds his friends were before.  
But for some reason, Donald wanted to find out.

...

"Ahh, good morning Donald, Panchito." Jose stood and stretched. "I feel refreshed, as always. I wonder what the girls have for breakfast." He shrugged on his overcoat and placed his hat smoothly on his head. "Come on, why just lie there? Today could be the day Felldrake strikes next!" Humming a tune, the brazillian headed up the stairs, leaving his sleep deprived comrades lying face down on their matresses.  
"Urgh..." Donald rolled onto the floor. "How come I'm always so awake at two AM, but can't function seven hours later?"  
"Beats me." Panchito said with a shrug. "Oh, but listen. While I was sleeping, I somehow formulated a plan!"  
"Huh? To beat Felldrake?"  
"No," Panchito shook his head. "That portion of genius evades me still. But I thought of a way we can help Jose!"  
"Are you sure he actually has a problem?" Donald stood up, putting on his hat and sailor outfit.  
"One way to find out!" Panchito put on his jacket and hat. "April, May and June have a tape recorder somewhere, don't they? We can use that to record what Jose says and translate it later!"  
Donald shrugged. "Worth a shot. But... would Jose really want us invading his privacy like that?"  
"Oh come now! Would you be mad if I did the same to you?"  
"Yes."  
"Well, you're Donald." Panchito gave a small laugh. "Come on, amigo! I smell pancakes!"

...

That night, Donald and Panchito were ready. Panchito held the recorder under his blanket and winked at Donald as the light went out. Donald winked back, but Panchito couldn't see him. Their plan was to stay up until Jose started talking in his sleep again. But try as he might, Donald couldn't keep his eyes open. His bed was so comfy and he felt so tired. His muscles ached from the trainin Xandra had put the through today. Before he could stop himself, he had fallen fast asleep.  
"Donald. DONALD!"  
Donald woke up with a little gasp, and got ready to annihilate whoever had woken him up. He only saw Panchito's concerned face, however, and lowered his raised fists.  
"It's happening again." Panchito whispered, motioning towards Jose's bed. The parrot was thrashing about in his sleep, a lot more vigorous than last night, his breath coming out in panicky gasps. Panchito held up the recorder and Donald nervously listened.  
"Saia de cima de mim!" Was the first thing Jose said, and in the half light, Donald saw his face was screwed up in a panicked scowl. "Pare, deixe-a em paz! Por favour!" Jose voice was quickly rising into a shout. Donald and Panchito shared a glance. Jose stopped moving suddenly, breathing normally again.  
Panchito let out a sigh. "Is it over?" He whispered. Suddenly, Jose started up again, a lot louder than before.  
"Você vai pagar por isso!" He cried, thrashing about again. Panchito actually jumped and fumbled with the recorder. "Não! PARE!"  
"That's quite a nightmare!" Donald exclaimed. "Should we wake him up?"  
"If we do that, he'll know we were listening." Panchito answered. Donad didn't really want to listen, his friend's tone was too scared and angry for this story to be a happy one.  
"Me machucar em vez!" Jose sounded on the verge of tears. "Não! Mama-" With a gasp, Jose jerked awake, wiping his eyes hurridly. Panchito quickly turned the recorder off. The little click of the button alerted Jose, who turned around and came face to face with Donald and Panchito.  
"What are you doing?" He asked in a suspicious tone.  
"Nothing!" Panchito made to hide the recorder behind his back.  
"What's that."  
"Not secrets!" Donald exclaimed, grinning uneasily. Jose frowed and yanked the recorder out of Panchito's hands. One glance at the device told him all he needed to know. He looked up at the other caballeros, anger written all over his face.  
"We were just trying to help!" Donald protested worriedly. "It, it was Panchito's idea!"  
Jose glared at Panchito, who shifted uncomfortably.  
"I just... heard you talk in your sleep and thought we could maybe translate..." He trailed off. Jose sat up and turned on the light. The anger was vivid on his face, as were a few tears.  
"You want to know?" He asked angrily. "Fine. Let me translate." He held up the recorder and played back the recording.  
"Saia de cima de mim!" Came the voice through the recording. Jose didn't turn a feather at the sound of his own panicked voice.  
"Get off me." He translated in a rough voice.  
"Pare, deixe-a em paz! Por favour!"  
"Stop it, leave her alone. Please." Donald and Panchito listened with open mouths.  
"Você vai pagar por isso!"  
"You will pay for this."  
"Não! PARE!"  
"No. Stop."  
"Me machucar em vez!"  
Jose's voice shook a little as he translated this last sentence.  
"Hurt me instead." He looked hard at Panchito and Donald, who gulped. "No. Mama." He scowled. "Now you know. Does that make you feel better? Satisfy you in some way?"  
Panchito looked at the floor. "Sorry." He muttered. Jose ignored him, dropping the tape recorder onto the floor.  
"Goodnight, gentlemen." He snapped, and lay down again, rolling onto his side with his back to Panchito and Donald. The pair looked at each other in silent guilt before switching off the light and lying down again.  
Jose's words swirled around in Donald's brain. Who was this person he had been trying to protect? His mother? If so, was this not merely a dream, but a memory? Donald winced. Sure, his house had burnt down, his poor luck had lead to many painful experiances and he's seen some pretty horrific things during his time in the navy, but whatever Jose had been through, sounded a lot worse.

...

When Donald and Panchito woke up the next morning, Jose had already gone upstairs for breakfast. With a grudging look of guilt, the two hurried upstairs to meet the others. Jose was already there, but he didn't even look at them. Donald and Panchito didn't talk to each other at risk of excluding Jose, so the total lack of communication between the caballeros earned them some strange looks from everyone but Ari. Which made sense, as Ari was usually on the receiving end.  
The whole day passed by with very little talking between the caballeros, but each of them were dreading night time, when the three of them would be left alone with nothing but their empty silence.  
The three removed their hats and jackets in silence and lay down in their beds in silence. None of them slept, however, none of them even tried it. There was far too much on their minds.  
Donald decided that someone needed to break the ice, and he was rather good at breaking things.  
"We're sorry, Jose." He said. Panchito stiffened and looked towards Jose's bed. He hadn't moved. "We were just worried about you, and curious too, I guess." Donald sighed. "We shouldn't have, but we really did want to help you."  
"Plus we couldn't exactly sleep through it." Panchito offered. Donald winced. "Because we, erm... care too much?"  
Jose seemed to let out a sigh and rolled over to face them.  
"I know." He said quietly. "I just... wanted to keep that story a secret."  
"We understand." Panchito said quietly. "It's your business. Not ours."  
"You should know though." Jose sighed. "If we are in this together... no secrets."  
"Are you sure?" Donald asked nervously. Jose nodded.  
"It isn't a very nice story, however. Are you sure you want to hear it?"  
Panchito and Donald nodded. Jose rolled onto his back and began.  
"I am not... exactly in this country legally." He said. "I grew up in Bahia until I was twelve, in one of the slum areas. My father was in a mafia, my mother taught me to pick pockets and scam people as she taught me to walk and talk. I thought that would be my life, stealing just enough to get by. Until one fateful day when my father was arrested and killed by the police. A rival mob had tipped them off and they were coming for us. My mother told me to pack a bag, we had to escape to America. I hadn't been there before, barely even heard of it. I did not speak the language. How I was meant to scam people if I could not speak their language, I do not know. Nevertheless, we hurried out of our little neighbourhood, joined by many other immigrants, mainly other women and children. We were all to board a little plane that would take us to America. Me and Mama, we were rather late, almost missed the flight. But just as we were being helped on board, the rival mob arrived." Jose's voice trembled a little. Panchito and Donald were sat up by now, listening intently.  
"They pulled my mother back down, and one of them jumped aboard, he started shooting. Fortunately, some of the people onboard had guns also, they took care of him. But the plane was going to leave any minute, and I wouldn't go without my mama." Jose's hands clenched into fists. "I tried to fight them off, but I was shoved aside..." Donald remembered what Jose had been yelling in his sleep. "You will pay for this! Get off her! Stop!"  
"The man brought out a gun and..." A sob escaped Jose's lips. Panchito and Donald looked at one another and swiftly moved to sit either side of their friend.  
"They killed her, didn't they?" Donald asked softly. Jose nodded, and put his head in his hands.  
"I was yanked back onto the plane, and it took off with me dangling out of the door. I dropped my suitcase. Everything I had was left behind or destroyed in Bahia. I came here with nothing but the memory of that night and the conman skills I had learnt. Eventually, I managed to put that behind me, but since our recent stay in Goblin Jail... I can't get her screaming out of my head..." Jose sniffed and stopped talking. Panchito and Donald put their arms around him and let Jose cry.  
"I'm sorry." Panchito said eventually. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. And all the fighting we're doing now with Felldrake. If you want to leave then-"  
"No." Jose sat up, wiping his face. "I am many things, but I am not weak. I will stay here with you." He gave a faint smile. "Thank you for making me share this."  
"We didn't make you-"  
"Nevertheless, thank you." Jose smiled. "I may have lost a lot in Bahia, but I have certainly gained a new family."

**Author's Note:**

> I would give it a better ending, but I'm tired. This is not the full extent of my literary skills. It's just 11 at night.  
> If you liked, please review. :)


End file.
